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Colon cancer is the second most common fatal cancer in the United States. About one quarter of colon cancer appears to have an inherited predisposition in that families show a greater frequency of the disease than the general population (e.g., the cancer is familial), and/or the cancer manifests an early age of onset (less than age 50). In most such cases, the molecular cause of the predisposition to cancer is unknown.
Currently, in the absence of such insight, many patients who are suspected of a predisposition to develop colon cancer but do not carry an increased risk needlessly receive frequent invasive and expensive colon examinations, while others who harbor an unrecognized predisposition fail to receive potentially life-saving colon examinations. There is a need for better diagnostics for predicting patient risk factors for developing colon cancer that may aid in early detection, facilitate screening of patients at risk, and reduce the need for invasive tests on patients with reduced risk factors.